This version is OK, but couldn't quite hold my interest; I found myself flipping through channels to see if something better was on.
Then Wendy Whelan came on and did the Arabian coffee dance and . . . WOW! She is simply spectacular and well worth the wait! By far the best thing about this production.
Totally agree.....but then, that's always my favorite part of the Nutcracker.
It's been my favorite part since i was tiny! The nostalgia factor has come in and made me adore the whole thing tho :)
shareMy favorite part too! In fact I remember seeing it in Lincoln Center (with another dancer), some time ago, and leaving the hall thinking "Now I know where Madonna stoled her routine!"
shareMy second favorite part of this ballet. I agree, Wendy Whelan was riviting.
shareAgree on all counts. Considering the drubbing the latest Nutcracker film is currently getting, I imagine this film is looking better and better to a lot of older viewers (at least it keeps the dancing), and for me the main reason has always been Ms. Whelan's Arabian dance: sophisticated, sexy, almost cat-like. She reminds me of a Broadway virtuoso, like a Carol Haney or an Ann Reinking back in the day. (It doesn't hurt, of course, that she has major attitude throughout the sequence and is drop-dead gorgeous also!!)
shareI am showing this version in my elementary school music class, because Tchaikovsky is our composer of the month. One of our new teachers just told me that she used to dance in a production of The Nutcracker every year here in TN, and that one year Ms. Whelan was hired to dance the part of the Sugar Plum Fairy in their production. I thought that was kind of cool.
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